Ascendant
Description Designed by Clan Smoke Jaguar, the Ascendant was envisioned as the ultimate assault 'Mech, able to hunt down and destroy its lesser brethren with ease. It is highly maneuverable, has extraordinary firepower, and has the most armor its frame can carry. With enough firepower to cripple even the most heavily armored assault 'Mech in a single salvo, it is capable of subjugating everything within a half kilometer radius. In its prime, it dominated the battlefield, and was highly respected throughout the Clans...until the OmniMech was created just a two years later. Though the Ascendant was, and still is, incredibly dangerous, it was rapidly relegated to second-line status, since it takes longer to repair than an OmniMech, and is incapable of rapidly customizing its weapons layout for a particular mission, a serious drawback. Its day in the limelight over, the Ascendant appears doomed to die of boredom; a god amongst garrison units, and nothing more. Even though the design has been traded to the other Clans since its fall from grace, fewer are produced every year; all assault 'Mechs are expensive, and the Ascendant is nothing if not an assault 'Mech. Second-line units are expected to be cheap to maintain and repair, and the sheer volume of concentrated fire the Ascendant draws ensures that it will need maintenance and repairs early and often. It seems that its expensive XL engine and hard-to-produce Endo Steel skeleton will likely be the end of this once-proud legend. The Ascendant is primarily used for destroying other assault 'Mechs and area denial, tasks which severely impact enemy morale. Seventeen double heat sinks keep its heat levels quite manageable for the experienced MechWarrior, and any warrior piloting such a powerful 'Mech can be expected to have some level of experience, second-line or not. Nineteen and a half tons of armor keep its internal systems safe, while CASE prevents the catastrophic failure caused by an ammo (or Gauss Rifle) explosion, and its ECM Suite protects it from any electronic shenanigans, resulting in a relatively straightforward fight-a Smoke Jaguar specialty. Its internal layout is well designed, if crowded, featuring heat sinks in the legs to take advantage of any bodies of water, and moving jump jets onto the torso so as to be able to rapidly extract itself from said location in the event of that it needs to move quickly. As far as electronic components, less critical areas are carefully arranged to cover vital systems whenever possible. As it's a second-line 'Mech, and a particularly rare one at that (especially since assault 'Mechs aren't that common to begin with), the forces of the Inner Sphere have yet to encounter the Ascendant, or quite possibly, have yet to survive an encounter with one long enough to identify it as being distinct from the Star League era Devastator, a 'Mech which it closely resembles. This could easily be more than pure coincidence, as the Devastator was designed by none other than Aleksandr Kerensky, the founder of the Clans. Armament Since it has more than one ton of ammunition for its LRM-5s, it is capable of carrying alternate types of ammunition, such as Swarm or Fragmentation. The LRMs also allow it to use indirect fire to attack opponents that are behind cover. The Gauss Rifles are stocked with more than enough ammunition to last through any normal battle. As is made obvious by its weapons loadout, the Ascendant is most dangerous at long range, where few 'Mechs can even come close to projecting as much firepower as it can, though it is far from helpless in close quarters. As it is a Clan 'Mech it uses Clan technology, meaning that its LRMs have no minimum range, unlike those of the Inner Sphere, and its ER PPCs, while typically used for long range bombardment, are perfectly capable of attacking at point blank ranges. As for the Gauss Rifles, they are useful right up until the enemy gets within spitting distance, assuming one can spit 60 meters. Its ability to reverse its arms allows it to fire in any direction at the drop of a hat, projecting the awesome firepower of its twin Gauss Rifles, and the somewhat less impressive firepower of two of its LRM-5s. Its inability to attack other BattleMechs physically with its arms was not viewed as a drawback-according the tenets of Zellbrigen, the Clans rules of engagement, warriors are forbidden to engage opponents in melee combat until they have no other weapons left available to them, and the likelihood of all seven of the Ascendants weapons being rendered inoperable before the 'Mech was incapacitated or destroyed was deemed to be laughable. Even if such an unlikely situation were to occur, it can still kick, or, more terrifying, deliver a Death from Above attack. Variants Ascendant Mk II: An extremely rare variant of the Ascendant. The Mk II was designed to spearhead assaults, it replaces one ton of Gauss Rifle ammunition and the three LRM-5's with an LRM-15 and a light active probe, allowing it to sniff out traps and ambushes before it walks into them, making an already formidable 'Mech even more dangerous. The primary reason for its rarity is that precious few were ever built; the tennets of Clan warfare make the modifications largely worthless against a foe that is unlikely to ever see combat against the Inner Sphere. BV 3439 (according to mechedit). References Category:BattleMechsCustom